Leave Them Kids Alone
by Eileen-Wood90
Summary: Abby and the team now covertly assist a brand new Sector V, while Cree tries to mess with them. What nobody realizes is that a new villain has more sinister plans for everyone. Extended summary in first chapter 3/4 2/5 and possible 86/60?
1. Of High School Politics

Summary: Abby and the team now covertly assist a brand new Sector V, whose harebrained leader is bound to keep them on their toes. Cree and her Teen Ninjas are determined to muck up the works, bringing a whole new meaning to high school drama. On top of that, there seems to be a higher power, an invisible enemy, who has far more sinister plans in store for kids and teens alike.

Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. Mr. Warburton does. And the title comes from Pink Floyd's song, "Another Brick in the Wall." The song has much deeper meaning than I expect this story to have. I just thought "Leave Them Kids Alone" was a fitting phrase for the title--and my brother insisted when I ran the idea by him.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Of High School Politics**

"I nominate Rachel McKenzie!"

Abigail Lincoln chuckled to herself as her blonde friend sent her a look of utter shock and horror, followed shortly by her death glare.

"Oooh! I second the nomination!" Kuki, the Japanese girl sitting on Abby's left, squealed. On one hand, Abby was glad the boys were sitting between her and Rachel at this assembly. On the other hand, she was going to get whiplash for this sooner or later…

The teacher in charge of this assembly nodded, and with a smile, jotted the name down on his notepad. "Alright. Rachel McKenzie for president…any other nominees?"

Abby didn't hear if there were any others because at that precise moment Rachel leaned over the boys and hissed, "Nominate me for president?! Why?! You know full well I don't want—"

"You've got good leadership skills, girl, and proved it lots of times—maybe if you hadn't insisted on Abby taking second-in-command of a certain super secret teen club instead of you, she wouldn't feel the need to push you into this," Abby whispered back, leaning forward so that her head rested on her hand, her elbow resting on her knee. As a result of this motion, she felt a gap forming between her indigo tank top and jeans, revealing a few inches of coffee-colored skin, but she didn't care. The boys knew if they stared at it they were dead.

It was true. As soon as Abby had been supposedly "decommissioned" from the Kids Next Door, she had joined the Teens Next Door. At the time, the only other operatives in Sector V were Maurice, formerly Numbuh Nine, and Rachel, who had been Numbuh Three Sixty-Two as well as Supreme Leader of the Kids Next Door. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Numbuhs Two through Four—Hoagie, Kuki, and Wally—were also "decommissioned" and joined their sector. Maurice was technically team leader, but with his undercover position in the Teen Ninjas, it was too dangerous for him to actually participate in the missions. A decision had to be made as to who would take his place on the missions, as well as after he graduated, this being his senior year. He offered the position to Rachel, who absolutely refused, insisting he give it to Abby. Everyone knew Rachel hated the pressures of being in charge, even though she was one of the best leaders Abby had ever worked with.

"What—this is revenge?!" Rachel snapped at her, and Abby knew she needed to be pacified quickly before she blew a gasket as well as the cover of the Teens Next Door. She didn't know who to worry about yet, but this was a high school, after all—full of teenagers. This being freshman year, she hadn't much opportunity to identify the dangerous ones, so it was best to be extremely careful where and when you said anything about the Teens Next Door.

"We'll discuss this later, Rachel," she mouthed, giving the blonde her best "That is an order" look. She shuddered a little on the inside. She would never get used to giving orders to Numbuh Three Sixty-Two.

"Oh, we most certainly will, Abigail. I've just appointed you my campaign manager," Rachel answered with a hint of sarcasm in her voice before she leaned back into her personal space. Surprisingly, Hoagie and Wally hadn't complained about theirs being invaded.

Abby smirked to herself as she tried to listen to the rest of the assembly. Rachel would have been perfect for Nigel, she thought. If only he wasn't off with the Galactic Kids Next Door, doing whatever it was they did, wherever in the universe they did it.

* * *

It was only the second week of school. None of the other teenagers were causing them any trouble as of late, but Abby preferred to watch out for the ones that potentially would, anyway. From his undercover job, Maurice had provided two names: Jessica Jackson and Linda Ramirez. Both were seniors, cheerleaders, and, ironically, older sisters of Kids Next Door operatives. Unfortunately, because Maurice had to be very discreet in his communication with her, those were the only names he could manage to provide. Sometimes Abby wondered why he was called team leader. Most of the time, he couldn't even be present at team meetings due to undercover activities and any information he gave was usually through text messaging, again due to his undercover activities. Abby was the one doing most of the work involved with being team leader. Maurice was more of an informant than anything.

Then again, so were the Teens Next Door. Most of their work involved extremely covert investigations and somehow alerting the Kids Next Door to whatever dangers were in store for them. On a few occasions, the Teens actively assisted the new Sector V when the Treehouse was under attack, but once again, they had to do it without being seen.

It was aggravating, especially for Wally, whose reckless antics had almost exposed them several times. Abby wondered if the Teens Next Door would actually be of better assistance if at least the Kids, apart from the current Supreme Leader, knew they existed. Sometimes she considered giving Wally direct orders to blow their cover in the middle of the next operation, but the foreseen consequences kept her from doing so. She'd also considered giving him a direct order to confess his feelings for Kuki and get the drama over with, but decided against that, too.

Kuki, while Abby was lost in her thoughts, was chatting it up with Rachel at their lunch table. Her style had changed considerably since grade school. She didn't like oversized sweaters anymore, except maybe on a colder, sicker day when she really just wanted to curl up by a fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. On a normal day like today, she wore things that fit better, though she was always modest. She did like shorter skirts, but she made sure those were layered with a pair of leggings. For example, this being a warm day, she was wearing a pale pink and black striped blouse with a gray pleated skirt over said leggings—these ones reaching only to her knees—all matched up with her favorite pink converse shoes and imitation pearl earrings. Part of her waist-length black hair was pulled into a ponytail and she also wore her black headband with green polka dots. The green matched nothing, but Kuki wore it on most days regardless, like how Abby always wore her red bandana in her hair regardless of whether she was wearing red anywhere in the rest of her outfit.

Glancing over toward the lunch line, Hoagie and Wally could be seen asking the lady if they had any nacho sauce to go with their fries. Hoagie had lost a considerable amount of weight over the years but remained slightly on the chubby side. He was now taller than the average fourteen-year-old at five-foot-eleven and frequently joked about wanting to hit "five-twelve." He ditched his aviator hat on most days and cut his hair shorter, always trying to style it into a fauxhawk and failing, so it just looked messy. He basically remained the dork they all knew and secretly loved.

Wally hit a growth spurt as well, now standing an inch taller than Abby at five-foot-eight. He always said he wasn't done growing, either. His family had tall genes and he never let anyone forget this. His hair wasn't in the bowl-cut style anymore, either. If anything, he let it grow a little longer and wilder. He now wore an orange zip-up jacket, even on this warm day. As he and Hoagie turned away from the counter with their lunch trays, Abby could see he had it unzipped so the white lettering on his camouflage T-shirt could be read: "Shh! I'm hiding from the flying monkeys!"

She chuckled to herself. Just replace the word "flying" with "rainbow" and truer words would never be read.

"I _cannot believe_ a school cafeteria doesn't have _cheese_ when they're serving _fries_!" Wally complained in his Australian accent, slamming his tray onto the table as if emphasizing his words wasn't expressing his outrage effectively enough. (Just as if using that many E's in that sentence isn't a clear sign that the author needs more sleep.)

"I know, right? You'd think it would be obvious," Hoagie added. "Lame sauce." He then lightened up. "Hey, that's kinda funny! Get it? We're talking about how they don't have cheese sauce so instead it's lame—"

"The only lame sauce at this table is _you_, Hoagie," Abby interrupted in a bored voice.

"There's no need to get all saucy with me, Abby," he teased, laughing, but cut himself off when he saw the look on her face. "I'm done now."

"Mmmm, hmmm." She nodded to him before taking another bite of her salad.

"Well, ketchup's okay I guess," Wally commented and started going through the little packets to drench his fries in the red sauce, as if it had not been as big a deal as he'd made it out to be only a moment ago. "Oi, Kuki…you know that story from lit. class…maybe you can help me with it later today? Cause I'm having a really hard time understanding it."

Kuki stopped mid-sentence in her conversation with Rachel and stared at him. "That was just assigned today and you've already read it? When?"

"Yeah, since _when_ do you care about your homework?" Abby added skeptically, on the brink of teasing as he _did_ just ask the cute Asian girl he'd been crushing on since grade school, after all.

"During that cruddy class meeting thing. I got bored," he told Kuki and shot a glare in Abby's direction. "And since apparently if I wanna be on the basketball team, my grades have to be—well, better than they were in middle school."

"Right," Abby said simply, and she could hear Hoagie stifling laughter from his seat next to her.

The discussion abruptly ended when Patton and Fanny came to sit with them. They were both former Kids Next Door operatives who had been truly decommissioned. Since then, Fanny's headstrong personality had been knocked down a few notches by the cruelty of teenagers. Kuki scooted a little closer to Wally so Fanny had room to sit between her and Rachel, while Patton, the former drill sergeant, sat on the other side of Abby, across from Rachel. The two of them, even though their childhood was now a blur, remembered hanging out with Rachel a lot and still preferred to do so. Kuki was also a really good friend to Fanny, remembering her promise to the crying ten-year-old even if Fanny didn't.

"Yo, Raych," Patton greeted, "congrats on the nomination! You're a shoo-in for president, especially with Jimmy McGarfield being your only challenger! I mean, after that snow day fiasco from fourth grade, there's no way anyone's gonna elect _him_ again."

Another true statement: people didn't like Jimmy, but most of them quickly fell deeply in like with Rachel. She was just one of those easy-to-like people. Her cuteness and fashion style of simple elegance didn't hurt her, either. She was currently sporting a designer white V-neck shirt with a blue tank top layered underneath along with her favorite jeans and flip-flops.

"But…you guys don't get it. I don't want to win," Rachel sighed, as though she knew it was no use.

Wally was now using his teeth to rip open a particularly stubborn ketchup packet, probably torn between feeling annoyed with Patton and Fanny for cutting off his plan-making with Kuki and feeling embarrassed but slightly happy that she moved closer. Not that he was going to show any of those emotions. No, right now it was just him and his war with the ketchup packet. Abby would have to give him crud for this later, as a sort of older sister, but in the meantime, Patton kept talking.

"Aw, come on. I was just thinking, with me running for VP and Fanny here for secretary-treasurer, maybe we could all campaign together? If you don't mind, that is? I mean, I don't remember much but I'm pretty sure we made a good team back in the day. Maybe we still do."

Rachel seemed to brighten at these words. "Yeah, I think I'd like that, Patton. Great idea."

_Just what the doctor ordered, _Abby thought. Patton and Fanny had actually been nominated by Hoagie and Kuki, respectively, and seconded by Rachel herself.

"Oh, and I can help with the posters if you want," Kuki offered, always eager to lend a helping hand. This sweet personality of hers made her reasonably liked among classmates, though quite a few of them thought she was too childish. However, that trait made her a favorite babysitter in her neighborhood. "Of course, now that Patton's on the team, it's nix on the pink paper and sparkles," she threw in with a small giggle.

"Pink and sparkles? Poor Sanban seems to have forgotten we're not in third grade anymore, so allow me to give you a friendly reminder: posters don't win elections. Popularity does." This poorly disguised snide remark came from a brown-haired girl now standing by Patton. "Hey, Rachel." This one sounded a little more genuine.

"Hi, Shannon, how's it going?" Rachel politely returned the greeting but she was obviously unimpressed by the words directed at Kuki.

Abby rolled her eyes and kept eating. This was Shannon Rivers, the extremely popular girl from middle school who took no interest in their group other than to poke fun at them, all while eagerly trying to befriend Rachel. Clearly, the pattern continued into high school, despite all of Shannon's talk about growing up.

"Pretty good, Rachel," Shannon said casually, pointedly saying her name to specify she was only talking to her. "I couldn't help but overhear you're teaming up with these two for the elections and thought I'd offer some friendly advice: bad move."

"Oh? Please enlighten me," Rachel responded, still polite but with an icy undertone.

Missing that undertone, Shannon jumped right in. "Well, as Patton here said, Jimmy doesn't stand a chance against you. You're pretty much president already. Teaming up doesn't help you at all, it helps Patton if anything. Of course, there's no harm in that, since you don't need help anyway." As she spoke, she moved along the table, now standing behind Rachel and Fanny. They turned so that they could fix their gaze on her. "But I'd say throwing Fanny into the mix would be nothing but harmful to your campaign. Let's face it, people don't like her."

"Fanny is perfectly capable of the job. That's why I seconded her myself," Rachel interrupted, on the brink of impoliteness. Both she and Patton were frowning, while Fanny just looked hurt.

"Maybe she is, but that doesn't matter, Rachel. Like I said, popularity wins elections. No problem for you and Patton, but trust me, Fanny doesn't stand a chance. Especially with me running, who do you think would vote for this frizz ball?" Shannon actually took a handful of Fanny's bushy red hair and tugged lightly, making the girl yelp, probably more from the emotional pain than the physical. She smirked, letting go of Fanny's hair as if she'd touched something filthy, and concluded with, "I really think you'd be better off campaigning with me instead."

Kuki, her temper sparked by this action, pulled Fanny closer to her. "Don't—do that—again!" she said through gritted teeth.

"For starters, Abby's gonna vote for Fanny, since you're asking who." Abby finally spoke up, fixing her own glare on Shannon, though her tone was in calm contrast to Kuki's.

"Me, too," Hoagie agreed with a little more hint of anger in his voice.

Shannon, while alarmed by Kuki's sudden change of demeanor, scoffed at the two of them. "Right. Abby of the third person and Hoagie of the sci-fi conventions. I better start working on some better campaign strategies because that _so_ increases my competition." She did, however, move to the other side of Wally at the end of the table so that she was out of Kuki's reach. Looking back on this moment, she might consider whether she was better off staying put.

Abby's expression hardly changed, if at all, along with her tone. If anything, she was even calmer. She casually pushed a few of her micro braids behind her ear. "I'm not gonna dignify that."

Hoagie, of course, wasn't as gracious. "Well at least we're not Shannon of the shallow—ha! Shallow Rivers. I'm gonna use that—"

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Come up with that all on your own, Gilligan?" she said with dripping sarcasm, leaning a little over the table to intimidate him.

Rachel, in the meantime, had gotten her bearings and she was as mad as Abby had seen her all day. She actually stood up and pointed a finger at the girl. "Now you listen here, Shannon—" she began, ready to lower the boom, but she didn't get to say anything further, because at that precise moment, Wally overcame his enemy. Unfortunately, since he'd been fighting it so zealously, the ketchup ended up squirting out, and landing, as fate would have it, in Shannon's hair. Some of it ended up on her face as well.

Not really noticing where the sauce had gone or at least not caring all that much, Wally's first response was to stare at the now empty packet and mutter, "Stupid ketchup."

Shannon's face was the epitome of horror and disgust, turning quickly into rage, which she didn't hesitate to level on Wally. "You little jerk! You did that on purpose!"

Everyone could tell he was taken aback by her outburst, but he quickly regained his composure since he liked people thinking he was tough and, obviously, letting a girl intimidate him would ruin that image. "I did not! That was for my fries!"

"Oh, really, wise guy? Then where's my apology?"

"Apology? Hey, I said it was an accident, _not_ that you didn't deserve it!"

If it was at all possible for Shannon to grow angrier, that did it. "I thought so! It brought you satisfaction, didn't it?"

"What are you talking—"

"You know what, forget it!" she cut him off. "I'm gonna go rinse this crap out, but I swear, you're gonna get it for this, Beatles! I will make you pay for this!" With that, she stormed off.

As soon as she was gone, Rachel sat back down sheepishly and Hoagie and Patton burst out laughing.

"Nice one, Wally! I was just thinking, with things heating up there we really needed some cool sauce—ow!" Hoagie joked only to get smacked upside the head by Abby.

"It was an accident!" Wally started to argue, but this time Patton interrupted him.

"That was awesome! As of right now, you are the best person ever!"

Wally blinked. "…Alright, if that's the case, I did it on purpose. I was just saying it was an accident for good measure."

The boys continued on like this for a few moments while Abby snickered until Rachel cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention on her.

"Okay, I say we start working on that campaign." She reached over and opened the notebook Fanny had set on the table in front of her. "Fanny, write this all down please. Patton, I want you to be thinking of some strategies and we'll discuss them after school. You, too, Abby, you're not off the hook yet. Kuki, as soon as you're done helping Wally with homework, run your poster ideas by us. I know you'll have several. Hoagie…aw, what the heck, try to come up with some slogans and we'll see. And, Fanny…don't believe what Shannon says. I seconded you and Patton because I think—no, I _know_ you'll be amazing—and I'm behind you all the way. We'll just see who wins this election…"

_Now_ that's_ the Rachel I remember,_ Abby thought fondly.

Just then, her cell phone vibrated and she checked it to see a text message from Maurice.

_4 future ref- the chrleaders table 2 the rite of Lizzie. Jess & Linda. Keep ur eyes open._

She glanced over to a now slender Lizzie Devine, who'd stopped braiding her reddish brown hair since grade school and now wore contacts instead of those large, obtrusive glasses. Next to her was a pale girl whose shoulder-length light brown hair had been streaked platinum blonde recently, along with a Hispanic girl who was chubbier and curvier than the other cheerleaders. Her curly dark hair was pulled into a ponytail. Abby let her eyes drift over to a table where some of the senior boys and fellow African American, Maurice, sat, with his short dreadlocks and leather jacket. He returned the glance and winked at her, managing a slight nod as well.

This was going to be an interesting year, Abby decided.

* * *

Please review. I do very much enjoy all forms of feedback. :)

Keep in mind, while I've got several ideas rolling around in my head, I haven't quite solidified exactly where I want this to go...


	2. Rebel without a Cause

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. It's not nearly what I wanted to do with it, especially towards the end, but I was tired of it taking so long, so I just wrapped it up!

Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door, the title phrase "Rebel without a Cause" (that's some movie I've never watched, starring James Dean...), or any of the related characters. I do own Shannon, Jessica, Linda, Roy, and the new Sector V kids. (I forgot to mention that last time.)

* * *

**Chapter 2: Rebel without a Cause**

Whoever invented long division should be locked up in the Kids Next Door Arctic Prison, Tobey Jackson—or Numbuh Seventeen as he preferred to be called—thought sourly to himself as he tried to pore over his math homework. Too bad that person was most likely already dead and you couldn't lock up teachers for assigning homework. Then there would be no more teachers. Oh, if only that could be the case, but Numbuh Seventeen never had that kind of luck. He always seemed to have the bad kind of luck. For example, on the day he received the worst math assignment ever and really needed to concentrate, his sister decided to bring her friend over and blast whatever girly stupid music that was currently a big hit—at least to the teenagers. These girls weren't just any teenagers, either. They were seniors—seventeen, almost adults and thinking they were so cool—and cheerleaders, thinking they were so cool for that, too. In fact, his sister, Jessica, was captain of the cheer squad at McClintock High.

"Could you turn that down?! I'm trying to do homework here!" Numbuh Seventeen snapped at them after knocking on her door and opening it without invitation.

Jessica looked up from where she lay sprawled on her stomach on the bed, her feet on the pillow. Was that a textbook in front of her? How could she read in all this noise? The girl was insane!

She fixed her blue eyes, heavy with mascara, on her little brother and said bluntly, "You expect me to care?"

Linda glanced at them from her seat on one of Jessica's bean bag chairs, also with an open book. They were both insane! Numbuh Seventeen covered his ears, realizing the music was drumming into his head, probably destroying brain cells along with his ability to hear.

"Can't you at least use headphones?!" he yelled over the noise.

Jessica grabbed her remote and pointed it at her boom box, actually turning the music up higher. Apparently that was still possible. "I'm sorry, you're gonna have to speak up. I can't hear you!" she yelled back, a smirk tugging at her lips.

Numbuh Seventeen only emitted an angry sound in response to that and stomped out of the room. He could swear he heard laughter behind him, mixed in with that stupid girl music. _Stupid teenagers,_ he thought as he grabbed his homework and shoved it into his backpack. For crying out loud, he was the little brother; he should be annoying _them_.

"I'm going to the Treehouse!" he loudly announced to his brother, Roy, as he passed by the kitchen, since the music could be heard well even once he'd retreated from Jessica's room. Roy was sitting on the counter, eating a sandwich. He gave Numbuh Seventeen a thumbs-up.

Roy was a teenager, too—fifteen—but he wasn't as annoying as Jessica. He was just a wimp, letting Jess push him around too much. Numbuh Seventeen slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed out to the garage for his bike. At least if anyone was at the Treehouse, they would have to follow his orders and let him concentrate. Ah, the benefits that came with being team leader. They made up for all of his bad luck.

Once he was out the door, Jessica peeked in the kitchen. "He gone?" she mouthed at Roy. He gave her a thumbs-up. "Alright, Linda, kill the music!" she called back to the room. The boom box was shut off hardly a second later.

Jessica grinned and tapped her wrist communicator before speaking into it. "Alright. We got rid of him."

* * *

Since the Treehouse headquarters now belonged to a new group of Sector V Kids, the Teens Next Door needed to meet somewhere else. There were actually a few different places. One of the most frequent was the basement of Nigel Uno's old house. His parents still lived there and allowed them to use it. Another was the basement of Lime Ricky's, the soda bar for kids. Hoagie remained on good terms with its child patrons and occasionally provided their root beer.

The one place they could not, under any circumstances, use for headquarters was Abby's house. Her now twenty-year-old sister, Cree, lived there, taking online college courses, and they all knew she was the current leader of the Teen Ninjas, a group of the especially dangerous teenagers, now that Father was gone. The really bad thing was that Cree suspected the team had never been decommissioned. She herself had escaped decommissioning, so perhaps it was intuition. Because you could never be too careful, the team just never held meetings at that location. Therefore, Abby didn't have to imagine the surprise on her sister's face when she and her friends walked through the door after school.

"A-Abby? What are you guys doing here?"

"Class elections are in a coupla weeks and these three are running, so we're gonna work on posters and stuff," Abby said with a smirk at Cree's reaction to all of them. She seemed almost distraught. "Relax, sis, we'll just be in the basement. You weren't planning anything, were you?" She added the last bit just to see how much Cree would squirm, sneaking a sort of wink to Maurice, who was sitting next to her sister on the living room couch. As dumb as Cree accused the Kids Next Door of being, she still hadn't figured out her boyfriend was a spy.

With Cree's eyes busy counting how many high school freshmen were in her house, Maurice winked back at Abby, and she tried her hardest not to let her face flush. Why did he have to look so dang attractive every time he did that? If it was any other guy, this wouldn't be such a problem.

Speaking of awkwardness, Cree's eyes now studied Hoagie, scanning him up and down. This went unnoticed by everyone else until she said aloud, "Gilligan? Wow, you're actually getting kinda cute."

He crossed his arms, glaring at her. "You said something like that before, don't act so surprised _now_," he responded, undoubtedly sounding annoyed, but there was no hiding that blush on his face.

He was making a reference to the time he accidentally turned himself into a teenager, during which Cree went on a date with him and rubbed it in Abby's face, claiming he was cuter than anyone she would ever date. In fact, Cree had even kissed him. Not that she wanted to flaunt that to anyone once she realized who he really was.

The awkwardness rapidly grew to a thickness that couldn't even be cut with a butter knife, so Abby cleared her throat. "Okay, we'll see you later, sis. Come on, guys." With that, she led the group to her basement.

After lunch, a surprising amount had been accomplished. It turned out Kuki and Wally had a study hall together, so they got permission to work on their literature assignment in the hallway. Wally read through the story, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, a second time while Kuki read it her first time. He didn't complain about this, and not just because he got to work with Kuki—he actually was very excited about this story. By the end of study hall, they were almost done with their homework.

The group met up very quickly right after school to figure out what to do next. Kuki had a poster idea: taking pictures of Rachel, Patton, and Fanny together. As expected, none of the slogans pitched by Hoagie were acceptable, but he owned nice camera equipment and offered his services. Fanny protested ferociously that she was not presentable for a photo shoot, pointing at her baggy clothes that a lot of people always made fun of. Kuki excitedly offered to do her hair and wardrobe. After some amount of calming exercises, Fanny accepted, and the group took off to the various locations they needed in order to collect the proper materials, agreeing to meet at Abby's house for further planning. It wasn't TND business, so Abby saw no harm in it.

They wasted no time getting situated once they reached the basement. (As teenagers, they seemed to really enjoy basements.) Hoagie immediately began setting up the camera while Kuki searched for an outlet to plug in her curling iron. With the campaign partners, it was straight to business.

"Okay, I did some research and found out the freshman and sophomore class councils always put together Sadie Hawkins in the spring. So I was thinking we should survey the people on what they'd prefer. Show that we care about what they want—this includes you, Fanny. Talking to people is a huge part of campaigning," Patton was saying.

"I don't like this," Fanny commented, but it was unclear what she directed that towards, since Kuki now had the iron plugged in and was pushing her into a chair.

"Hey, Abby, I didn't know you had a pool table down here," Hoagie said brightly from where he and Wally now stood, right next to it. The camera was ready, but it was obviously going to take the subjects several minutes.

"It's Cree's, and she doesn't want us messing with it." Abby chuckled at his enthusiasm over the discovery, knowing the two boys were going to be so bored with all this political talk. "Save Abby a game. She's gonna go snag y'all some sodas." Adding to that last thought, she gave Hoagie a wink and headed back upstairs.

Once she reached the kitchen, she walked straight to the fridge, opened it, and proceeded to study the options. There were seven guests who most likely didn't all prefer the same flavor. Her fridge contained several cans of root beer, diet cola, and lemon-lime soda. None of that diet nonsense would do, Abby determined with a grimace. She'd grab a few of the other kinds.

Just then, Cree walked in, talking into her watch. "I don't care _how_ you do it. Use your imagination or something, just get rid of him!" At this point, she noticed Abby's presence and hastily hit a button on the watch. "What are you doing in here?" she demanded.

Abby looked at her with raised eyebrows. "I have guests. It ain't polite not to offer drinks. What are _you_ up to?"

"None of your business, _Crabigail_," Cree snapped at her.

Abby rolled her eyes. "Whatevah," she said, grabbing a diet cola and handing it to her sister.

"Why, thank you, Abby." Cree's demeanor rapidly switched to overly sweet and she started to walk out of the kitchen. "Oh—Maurice and I are taking off for a little while. Don't make a mess of the house."

"Sure." Abby rolled her eyes again, waiting until Cree was completely out of range before she whipped her cell phone out from her back pocket. She found Tommy in her list of contacts and started punching in a text message:

_Hey go make sure everything's sweet at the TH_

Tommy was Hoagie's little brother and self-proclaimed vigilante, calling himself "The Tommy." Believe it or not, his skills had improved over the years and he caught on to the TND. Abby and Hoagie convinced him to keep quiet about it by allowing him to be a sort of informant between the TND and the KND. He could even take full credit for TND actions. Surprisingly, Tommy handled this job well.

Abby sent the message and returned her phone to her pocket. The situation was probably under control, but she at least wanted someone checking in on it just in case. For now, it was time to bring these sodas downstairs and play some pool.

* * *

Math homework normally didn't register this intensely on Numbuh Seventeen's to-do list, but there hadn't been a mission in weeks and he was extremely bored. Just yesterday, he'd hunted down his informant, a plump eleven-year-old named Tommy Gilligan, and pleaded with him to at least say the Toilenator was up to something, but no such luck. Suspicious adult activity just wasn't happening lately. It was enough to make Numbuh Seventeen feel like a rebel without a cause. (He'd never seen that movie, but the phrase felt appropriate.)

Numbuh Seventeen stashed his bike in Monty Uno's backyard, where the Treehouse Headquarters were located. Mr. Uno's son, Numbuh One, left with the Galactic Kids Next Door almost four years ago, and the rest of his team was now decommissioned. Mr. Uno was kind enough to allow Numbuh Seventeen and his team to use the Treehouse.

"Nigel doesn't need it anymore, anyway," he had explained.

Monty Uno was pretty cool for an adult, Numbuh Seventeen admitted to himself as he climbed the stairs. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was a former KND operative, even if he couldn't remember.

Upon reaching the Treehouse, he was greeted by Numbuh Eighteen, their confectionary officer, who was actually the younger brother of Linda. He was generally a happy character and enjoyed sugary treats, as his title would suggest. He wore a button-down shirt in a shade of orange that probably didn't go well with his tan coloring, but Numbuh Seventeen didn't spend much time judging that. There was a reason he wasn't a member of the fashion police.

"Anything interesting going on?" he questioned once the initial greetings were over. He wondered why he bothered asking, though. Of course nothing was happening.

"No, not really," Numbuh Eighteen responded, with a hint of a Latino accent. "I'm making hot fudge sundaes. Want one?"

With all that long division, Numbuh Seventeen was certainly going to need one of those. "Sure. Just keep it down, I've got—"

The loud sound effects of mechanical work interrupted his request, causing both boys to jump. Numbuh Seventeen didn't have to ask who was responsible.

"NUMBUH NINETEEN!" he roared, marching straight into the main hangar. (Numbuh Eighteen chose not to join him, walking instead to the kitchen so he could start working on those sundaes.)

He had put up with this amount of noise from his teenage sister, but not from his operative—not here, not now.

The noise came from under the C.O.O.L.B.U.S., where the legs of a child clad in dirty overalls could be seen sticking out.

"Numbuh Nineteen, you stop this racket right now!" Numbuh Seventeen shouted. When the kid didn't respond right away, he pounded a fist on the contraption and shouted louder. "GET OUT HERE!"

"Sheesh, Tobey, who put a bee in your undies today?" a female voice startled him and he whipped around to see his blonde-haired, blue-eyed second-in-command perched atop Numbuh Nineteen's desk, right next to a stack of blueprints. Apart from her choice of words, one could tell she was far too classy a character to be expected in the greasy work area of a two-by-four technology officer, yet there she was, with her legs crossed, wearing a pink blouse, a purple skirt carefully matched with the headband keeping her curly hair out of her face, and white Mary-Janes. Around her neck was the silver locket her favorite aunt had given her for her seventh birthday—Numbuh Seventeen remembered her wearing that thing since they'd been Cadets together and secretly wondered if she ever took it off. The thing that surprised and troubled him the most, however, was that she had her homework with her—the exact same assignment as his, being in his class—and it looked as though she actually made some progress on it.

"Numbuh Twenty—how're you doing your homework in here? It's so loud!" Numbuh Seventeen demanded. Seriously, did all girls have this freakish ability?

"Puh-lease, Tobey, we're off duty. It's Amber. And no duh, it's loud in here. Filthy, too, but if you put up with it, Lilly's helping with this nasty long division," Numbuh Twenty answered, indicating with her pencil Numbuh Nineteen, who by this point ceased the racket and was now sliding out from under the C.O.O.L.B.U.S.

She was a short, freckled girl with red hair tied back into a ponytail. Her mint green T-shirt was about as dirty as her blue overalls. Once she was clear of the vehicle, she began to wipe the grease off her hands with an old rag she kept at the ready. She fixed her eyes on him through her safety goggles.

"Now why didn't you just say so, Seventeen, sir? I'll gladly help you with your homework! Which problem're you stuck on?" she asked in a cheery Texan drawl.

"But—but—" Numbuh Seventeen was almost distraught by now. "You're in third grade. We didn't do anything like this in third grade!" It was only a year ago he was in third grade, so he knew things couldn't have changed that drastically since then.

He heard Amber give an annoyed sigh. "She's in accelerated math, Tobias," she said in that "duh" tone of voice she used on him way more often than he liked, along with his full first name. (And "more often" in this case meant "at all.") Thankfully, she dropped the tone almost immediately. "Okay, have you run into Carlos yet? He's making sundaes and it really looks like you could use one."

"Yep. He's already on it," Numbuh Seventeen muttered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his royal blue hoodie. "So…where's N—Shawn?" he asked, referring to the final member of their team, Numbuh Twenty-One.

He caught himself in order to appease Numbuh Twenty's insistence on using their names when they weren't on missions, since she felt wrong calling people by numbers all the time. Numbuh Seventeen thought that was easy for her to say; in fact, it was easy for the whole _team_ to say. At least they all had decent names—especially Shawn. Numbuh Seventeen constantly felt jealous of his best friend's name. Tobias sounded like an old man's name, and Tobey was something you named a dog, not a kid. When he graduated from the Cadets, he'd been all too excited at the prospect of going by a number—so much so that it got on his nerves if you called him by anything else.

"He took off to play ball with some of the guys," Amber replied. "Now don't change the subject. You're obviously annoyed about something. You should rant—besides what all you're doing in your head."

Of course he couldn't distract a diversionary tactics specialist. He shouldn't have even tried.

"Ugh. My sister," he said simply.

"Say no more, just the mention of her name is enough to give us all nightmares."

This line came from a familiar boy, which caused Numbuh Nineteen to perk up and say, "Shawn! You're back early—have fun?"

Numbuh Seventeen turned around to face Numbuh Twenty-One, whose taller form stood in the doorway of Numbuh Nineteen's hangar, along with Tommy Gilligan. Numbuh Twenty-One's strawberry blond hair was somewhat hidden under a red baseball cap—turned backwards for a more punk look. He was wearing his typical outfit of a red T-shirt and jeans while Tommy was in his blue and brown with his trademark "The Tommy" cape and fedora.

Just Tommy's presence was enough to spark anticipation into Numbuh Seventeen. It had to mean something was going on. That, and he now noticed a S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. in Numbuh Twenty-One's right hand and the ice pack Tommy was holding just under his left eye. Things had to be all the more interesting.

"Yeah, Lilly. And it looks like I got back just in time to catch an intruder _and_ stop you girls from making Seventeen talk about his feelings," Shawn said with a laugh. "Except it turned out the intruder was just Tommy," he added, the laugh now being slightly nervous. "Sorry, dude."

"Don't worry about it," Tommy responded, waving his free hand at him.

_That explains the S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. and the ice pack, but not why Tommy's here,_ Numbuh Seventeen thought before he voiced, "So, Tommy…what's up? Or, rather, who's up to something?"

"No one. Just thought I'd drop by. Hang out. Chill maybe," Tommy answered him with a shrug.

That answer frustrated Numbuh Seventeen and he knew it showed. There was no way this middle-schooler wanted to spend his afternoon with a bunch of nine-year-olds. If he was that desperate for company, he could always jet over to Sector W for Numbuhs Eighty-Three and Eighty-Four; he could even bug his teenage brother. Besides…

"Chill? You never 'drop by' without a reason! Come on, either someone's up to something or you think they might be—cough it up!"

"Well…you seemed a bit focused on the Toilenator last time we talked, so I checked up on him. All he's been doing is fetching coffee for that Mr. Boss guy."

"And what's Mr. Boss up to?"

"Drinking the coffee."

"Seriously?!"

"Sorry, Tobey. I got nothing."

"Don't call me that!"

"Hey, it's not like you comply with calling me The Tommy…"

At this point, Numbuh Nineteen, who had swiped Numbuh Seventeen's math book, interrupted by addressing Numbuh Twenty-One, "Shawn, what'd you think of problem number eleven? Both Amber and Seventeen seem to be having trouble with it."

"Math homework? I haven't looked at it yet," Shawn told her.

Numbuh Nineteen sighed as indication of rare annoyance from her and, as if on cue, Numbuh Eighteen appeared behind Shawn and Tommy.

"Sundaes are ready! Oh—you want one, too, The Tommy?"

"Ooh! Please and thank you!"

Amber grabbed one of Numbuh Seventeen's backpack straps and pulled him with her in the direction of the kitchen, following the other male operatives who had immediately taken off at the mention of sundaes.

"Come on, boss, let's get that long division tackled over ice cream."

Numbuh Nineteen brought up the rear, her nose stuck in the book. "Three sixty-two divided by forty-seven? Hm, that one's definitely gonna have a remainder…"

* * *

Again, sorry for the wait! I hope it's worth it- please review and let me know!

I love my kids and their names (even if Tobey hates his). It was so hard typing in their numbers instead...


	3. Hall Monitors

What has it been, a couple months short of a year now? Anyways, here's the third installment, finally. Thanks for your patience.

Codename: Kids Next Door and related characters belong to Mr. Warburton, not me. I do own the new Sector V kids and Elevator Eyes and Skinhead.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Hall Monitors**

"I really don't get this story."

"You said that at the assembly, Wally," Kuki commented from where she sat next to him in the hallway during their study period. They were working on their literature assignment, "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. Like the other assignments, excluding Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," Wally wasn't a fan of it.

"Yeah, well it doesn't help, you slammin' the book shut on my fingers. That hurt, you know."

"Oh, don't be such a baby," she returned in her persistently cheerful tone. Throughout their childhood, and especially during the approximate year she was Wally's second-in-command, she had determined not to let his bad attitude ruin her good mood. _Someone_ had to stay positive, and Kuki insisted on being that someone, though there were lots of times it wasn't as easy as she made it look.

"It serves you right, reading during Rachel's speech. How rude," she added.

The posters turned out fairly well. Hoagie was actually a decent photographer, getting a couple different shots of the three political partners. One had Patton and Fanny standing at a sort of sideways pose while Rachel, the shortest, was front and center. The three of them were towards the right of the picture so there was room for the lettering:

_Vote for the Dynamic Trio:_

_Rachel McKenzie, Patton Drilovsky, Fanny Fulbright_

_President, VP, Secretary-T_

Another one, their favorite, was similar, only with the teens holding their fingers up in a gun-like pose, their smiles goofier. Sadly, the administration didn't let them use it because of the "suggested violence," so they put it on Facebook instead.

Kuki was quite proud of the job she'd done with Fanny's hair. Of course, all she'd really done was use a curling iron to refine the already natural curls. She was of the belief that you shouldn't alter your look too far from the natural—makeup, hair accessories, etc. should only enhance the beauty you already have. That is why, most of the time, she took a straightener to her already straight hair.

Then there was Fanny's wardrobe. Embarrassed of her ample, womanly figure, she tended to hide under plain, baggy clothes. The outfit she wore in the campaign photos was a rare one for her. It was a very flattering green blouse with a white lace layered look and some yellow floral print around the hem. This, along with a pair of less baggy jeans, she had been forced by Kuki to buy in the first place a while ago, and then to change into before heading over to Abby's for the photo shoot. Happily, she was okay enough with how the posters turned out that she actually wanted to wear it again for speeches.

"The speeches are pointless anyway, I figured I might as well get some homework done," Wally continued to argue but when Kuki shook her head at him, he added, "What? I already know who I'm voting for anyway. The Dynamic Trio, of course."

The smile returned to Kuki's face. "Good save."

"So I don't get it. She sells her hair to get a chain for his watch, and he sells his watch to get some combs for her hair. Turns out to be a pretty bad deal for both of 'em, but it sounded like I'm supposed to believe it's a happy ending anyway," he ranted, bringing the subject back to the assigned story in question.

"I thought it was sweet," Kuki said simply, twirling a strand of hair, which she'd left loose from her bun, around her finger.

"It's stupid! He sold his watch—which is supposed to be a family heirloom, so there's supposed to be emotional attachment there—to buy her hair clips that are useless anyway because she cut her hair off to buy him a watch chain that's also useless because he sold the watch—see the never-ending circle here? And yet they're all happy about it—it's stupid!"

"It's romantic," Kuki insisted and would have gone on to explain why it was romantic if she didn't see Fanny and become distracted. "Fanny, my love!" she called just loud enough to get her attention. "You did an amazing job on your speech today!"

Fanny interrupted her own route to come talk to her. "Really?" she asked. "You didn't think I stuttered too much, or said too many ums?"

"_Everyone_ stutters and ums in speeches—you didn't do it any more than the other people," Kuki assured her.

"Oh, good," Fanny said, breathing a sigh of relief. She pointed between Wally and Kuki now. "You guys kinda match today."

Kuki looked down at her red-and-yellow striped spaghetti strap top with some rhinestones in the shapes of cherries, then she looked over at Wally's red T-shirt reading "I'm not dead yet." He'd taken his jacket off because it was so hot outside today—the same reason she'd gone ahead and worn a tank top.

"I guess we do," she said with a slight giggle. "So what're you doing out in the hall?"

"Girls' room," Fanny responded immediately, pointing in the direction she was heading and proceeded. "See you later."

Once Fanny was far enough out of earshot, Wally muttered, "You liar."

"Excuse me?"

"You lied to her—she said _waaay_ more ums than everyone else. If she didn't throw those chocolate coins at everyone, I'd say her speech was lame."

"Maybe," Kuki granted him. "But sometimes you have to lie to make someone feel better, you know?"

"That's stupid."

"No, it isn't! By the way, you're doing a great job on your homework so far."

"Really?"

"No, but wouldn't that have made you feel much better?"

"Hey!" Wally snapped but Kuki was already giggling from her own joke that she ignored him.

She looked over to where Fanny just came out of the restroom and noticed a couple of scary-looking sophomore boys walking in the same direction. She froze and stopped laughing altogether when the boys shoved her friend against the lockers, whispered something to her, and then let her go. Then they kept walking.

Without thinking, Kuki stood up and headed straight for them. Wally had gone silent as well, and she knew he'd be right behind her.

"Hey, just what do you think you're doing?" she said outright, glaring up at them. These boys were taller than both her and Wally, who now stood at her side.

One of them smirked, looking her over as if sizing her up. Maybe she should've layered a jacket or something with her top, because now she was feeling quite cold. She went ahead and looked them over right back. They were both on the more stocky side—football players, she guessed. The one with the elevator eyes had pretty short, almost-black hair, but the other one's hair was so closely cropped she couldn't tell what color it was. Maybe blond or light brown, but she couldn't be sure. Nothing about their faces was anything noteworthy, though.

"Mind your own business, Chopsticks," Elevator Eyes finally sneered and gave her a shove. She hit the ground on her bottom and had a few choice words of her own for this guy. She wasn't sure what she was angrier about: the shove or the name-calling. Sure, she had chopsticks pinning her hair up but she knew that wasn't why he chose that name. In any case, Wally beat her to a reaction.

"Big mistake," he growled, cracking his knuckles. This caused both boys to laugh at him.

"You're gonna fight us?" the second one asked as though he couldn't believe it, it was that funny.

"You bet I am, Skinhead!"

Kuki pulled herself to her feet again. "Wally, don't bother, this is something for the teachers." The boys laughed even harder at that.

"Yeah, Wally, I don't want you to get hurt," Elevator Eyes said in a high-pitched tone. "Sifu says peace is the best answer."

"Oh, that is it!" Kuki started forward but Wally beat her to it again. He didn't hesitate; he punched Elevator Eyes right in the face. "I'm not even Chinese, you jerk!"

She doubted he heard her last remark, because he was too busy clutching his nose and whining about it; apparently Wally made it bleed.

"Dude, you might've broken it!"

"What? Mommy didn't teach you to take a hit?" Wally taunted him, fists still at the ready.

"_Ohhh_, poor baby," Kuki added for the fun of it in a sympathetic cutesy tone she'd used all too often in her younger years, only now it was so extreme it was obvious she was mocking him.

Skinhead took a swing at Wally and then everything erupted. With both boys taking on Wally at the same time, Kuki decided she wasn't going to just stand there so she jumped in on it as well—quite literally. She jumped on Skinhead's back, wrapping her arms around his neck so he couldn't breathe, and hence pulled him backwards and away from Wally.

He choked and finally thought to reach back to grab her off of him but before he could she leapt off, letting him go. While he turned to face her, she could hear Fanny snap at the group,

"Knock it off!"

Kuki would have gladly complied if Skinhead didn't swing his arm at her right then. She ducked and then brought her leg hard against his, making him fall. She then stood to her full height again and took a step back, even though he was winded on the floor.

"We done?" she asked him sternly.

He just looked up at her but didn't say or do anything, probably because in the next second, both Wally and Elevator Eyes yelled in surprise and at least a little pain. Kuki turned her head quick to see Wally on the floor and Fanny, who had clearly gotten between them, flip the other boy over onto the floor as well.

"That's enough," she said to both of them and then noticed the apparent shock on Kuki's face. "What? I work out." Though Kuki could tell deep down Fanny was just as shocked as anyone.

Joe Balooka and two other hall monitors had arrived at the scene just to see Fanny flip Elevator Eyes.

Balooka, taken aback by Fanny's move, started to say, "What in the—"

"Well, it's about time you boys showed up!" she cut him off in her shrill Irish voice she always used on boys, and it harbored a special hostility for Balooka. She'd never forgotten the conjunctivitis incident he'd played a hand in. "I swear you boys are never around when you could be useful!"

Kuki couldn't help but smile to herself at this.

Balooka stuttered. "S-sorry. We came as fast as we could. So what happened here?"

It was a good thing he asked that question right away or Fanny would have yelled at him some more. She squinted at him a little with her angry green eyes and then began.

"I was on my way back from the girls' room when I saw these two"—she indicated Kuki and Wally—"doing their homework out here and these boys"—now indicating the other two—"thought they'd be funny and make some racial comments towards her and then beat on him. We girls had no choice but to break it up while you three took your sweet time getting here."

She, of course, blatantly left out the part where they intimidated her. Wally was up on his knees right now, raising a brow to Kuki questioningly. She shook her head at him.

Balooka simply nodded to Fanny's story. "Thanks. Alright, boys, take these troublemakers to the principal's office," he told the other hall monitors. Once they led Elevator Eyes and Skinhead away, he turned to Fanny again.

"You know, the hall monitors have a slot open right now. If you don't win the election, or even if you do, you should consider applying. I'd put in a good word for ya."

Fanny's demeanor towards Balooka suddenly became increasingly less hostile, though not completely. "Really?"

He nodded to her again. "Really. We could really use more girls. They're bright where the rest of us aren't so much. Now you should get back to class." He started to head back in the direction from whence he came, but then he paused and looked back once more. "By the way, Fulbright—you've got my vote."

Fanny waited until he was completely gone before she grinned widely at Kuki and then headed back in her own direction as fast as she could without running.

Wally checked to make sure she was out of earshot. "Okay, what was that? She totally made me look like the victim!"

Kuki giggled and lightly swatted him on the arm. "She was totally _covering_ for you—you took the first punch, you know. Consider it a thank you in Fanny language."

The class period was almost up, so they put away their homework and just sat by the door, waiting for the bell to ring.

"Wish me luck," Wally finally said. "Those guys are in my PE class."

Kuki's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything about that other than, "Sure thing. Oh, and don't forget, they're passing out the ballots next period!"

Wally laughed a little. "I won't, I won't! Crud, you girls won't ever shut up about that!"

"Not until it's over, no."

* * *

After school, the two met at Kuki's house to keep working on their homework but no matter how many ways she tried to explain it, Wally still didn't understand the story.

"It's still stupid," he said for what sounded like the millionth time, causing her to sigh in annoyance.

"You don't get it. Fine. Here—just write down the answers in your own words and misspell a few," she said, handing over her completed reading questions. Just then her cell phone rang and she answered it cheerfully, "Hey, Abby!"

"Hey. Numbuh Seventeen just got himself in trouble with Mr. Fizz again."


End file.
